Five days ago.
It was the same as when leaving the Owen family mansion. There were no particular results.
While occupying the position of husband, Eugene Evergale only spoke words that made that position questionable.
Nevertheless, Ian breathed a sigh of relief. It was a more bearable anger than the day he went to Higher.
Ian pressed his deeply furrowed brow as he recalled five days ago.
“Looking for Helena? Tsk, what an unlucky start to the morning. That child died long ago.”
It was an unbelievable statement. It was something that shouldn’t even have happened.
After slapping each of those crude faces that dared to tell such lies, Ian left the Owen house.
And he found Dion in a corner by the roadside.
“Confess the truth at once! Why did you try to steal our master’s horse!”
“I-I’m sorry! I had no idea it belonged to the young lord…!”
“How dare you make such a flimsy excuse!”
He was harshly scolding a man in ragged clothing. Ian intervened between the two and first restrained Dion.
“Did I give such an order? Since when does hiding involve grabbing others by the collar?”
“Yo-Your Majesty!”
At Ian’s appearance, Dion opened his mouth as if to protest, but then froze in shock.
In that brief moment he took his eyes off, his master had appeared covered in quite harsh marks. Not only on the back of his hand and forearm below his rolled-up sleeve, but even on his cheek were splatters of fresh blood not yet dried.
“What on earth have you done again…!”
Dion exclaimed in a hushed voice. He quickly turned Ian around and hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket.
Ian casually answered while roughly wiping his face with the offered handkerchief.
“They dared to say Helena was dead. So I roughed them up a bit too.”
“If you were going to open your mouth anyway, why did you have to use your fists!”
“You know I prefer physical conversations.”
Dion exhaled a heated breath with a face that said to stop talking. Fearing a lengthy scolding, Ian nodded towards Dion’s back.
“So what’s all this commotion about?”
The man who had just been arguing with Dion stood there with a dumbfounded expression.
Dion grumbled, his flushed face reddening even more.
“Don’t blame me. This scoundrel was trying to steal Your Majesty’s horse, can you believe it?”
At Dion’s explanation, the man hastily waved his hands.
“N-No, my lord! If I had known it was yours, I wouldn’t have touched it! I just thought it belonged to this mansion since it was here, so I…”
“Wait. It sounds like you’re not saying you wouldn’t steal, but that you would have stolen if the horse belonged to the Owen family.”
“Y-Yes. That’s right!”
“…What?”
Why is he so bold about this? Is this place open to thievery?
Dion tilted his head. It seemed Ian felt the same, as he asked the man for an explanation before Dion could.
At first, the man looked at Ian’s attire and hesitated whether to speak or not. But when Dion tossed him a silver coin, he quickly opened his mouth.
The situation was roughly as follows. He had worked as a stable hand at the Owen Viscount’s mansion for a long time, but was recently kicked out without even receiving several months’ worth of wages.
So he came to see if there was anything he could take in lieu of wages, and when he saw the fine horse, he quickly tried to take it.
He contorted his face as best he could and poured out his grievances.
“I know stealing isn’t the right way, but these people deserve it. I mean, after practically selling their daughter off in marriage to a grand duke’s family, how much did they indulge in drinking and gambling to not even be able to properly pay their servants’ wages? It’s really too much for this family-”
“What did you just say?”
“Huh? That they squandered their fortune on gambling so much that all the servants couldn’t even get paid…”
“No, before that.”
“Th-That the Viscount Owen’s daughter was married off like she was sold to a grand duke’s family…is that what you mean?”
Married into a grand duke’s family? Ian hurriedly asked again.
“Then are you certain about Helena Owen’s life or death?”
“Huh? W-Well, of course. I haven’t seen her myself, but seeing how those people still act like good-for-nothings, she must be fine. They have a solid backing now that their daughter carries the Evergale name. It’s been over 5 years since she married the Grand Duke.”
“…You say she got married.”
Ian let out a hollow laugh.
It was truly one mountain after another. But it was enough that she was completely alive. Whether there were ten mountains or a hundred, if Helena was at the end of them, he intended to overcome them even if he had to tear them down.
As soon as the man who exchanged information left, Ian hurriedly mounted his horse.
“Sell this mansion and drive those people out. While you’re at it, I’m also entrusting you with command of the knights.”
At the order given as casually as if instructing tomorrow’s breakfast menu, Dion’s jaw dropped along with it. He couldn’t believe the overwhelming tasks suddenly thrust upon him.
He quickly grabbed the reins of the horse Ian was riding and clung on.
“You’re not really going all the way to Evergale or whatever, are you? I mean, she’s not just some noble, she’s married to a Grand Duke and living well! What’s the point of us butting in!”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“This is an obsession, my lord!”
Instead of replying, Ian pushed away Dion’s hand clinging to the reins with his foot.
Dion immediately let go with a yelp of pain. In truth, it wasn’t exactly an exaggeration, as Ian had unknowingly used force, feeling somewhat struck by Dion’s words.
It might be an obsession, as Dion said.
An obsession that the one who saved his childhood must surely become happy. An obsession that he must see her with his own two eyes.
‘Even so, I want to let you know of my existence.’
Before Dion could block his way again, Ian spurred his horse. A cloud of thick dust rose behind the path he galloped down.
That’s how he arrived at Evergale.
Here too, he couldn’t meet her, and only encountered arrogant fellows who didn’t know how to lower their haughtily raised heads, but it didn’t matter. On the contrary, hope surged like never before.
News of Helena finally seemed within reach. It became even more certain that she was alive. Then they could meet again.
A woman whose husband and family didn’t know her whereabouts, he would find her.
[This is the timeline separator]“Going round and round… At this rate we’ll circle the whole continent.”
The Evergale Grand Duke’s residence was believed to be the final destination without a doubt.
But when even this proved to be in vain, Dion let out long sighs as he watered the horse. Both the horse and himself were exhausted from the journey that was longer than expected.
Just then, the protagonist who had gifted this fatigue walked over from afar. Ian had stopped by a nearby shop saying he had something to check as soon as he left the Grand Duke’s residence.
Dion quickly attached himself to Ian’s side and whispered.
“Your Majesty. We’re going back to our cozy and warm homeland now, right?”
“…”
“…Your Majesty? Why are you not answering, making your loyal subject anxious? Your most pu—ahem. Your benefactor has already been married for over 5 years, we don’t know where she is, and there’s no other way to find out. There’s no other option but to go back now—”
“We’re going to Futua.”
“Pardon?”
Dion’s eyes widened. The knights sitting nearby polishing their swords also raised their heads.
They thought this journey of finding the benefactor—read as finding first love—was finally coming to an end. But it wasn’t over yet?
The knights who stood up dusting themselves off stared intently at Dion. At their attitude as if they had entrusted something to him, Dion jutted out his chin.
“W-What. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You know why.”
They were elite knights trained to respond to any crisis situation without wavering, but there’s an appropriate person for every task.
In the end, Dion, who was chosen as the appropriate person despite having a timid heart, bravely stepped forward to Ian.
“Um… Your Majesty? Isn’t Futua the port city near Praeterita where we went first? You’re saying we’re going back there?”
“This is really the last. If she’s not there either, all we can do is plant someone in the Grand Duke’s residence and wait.”
Plant what where?
“Why, do you think you’re suitable? If you want, I can have you disguised as a servant and sent in.”
This Majesty of ours is defecating with his mouth again. Of course, even that I have to swallow like honey as my duty.
Dion hurriedly retracted the disrespectful gaze that had escaped before he could filter it and blurted out:
“I’m happiest when I’m right by Your Majesty’s side!”
His lips trembled as he desperately uttered the flattery.
Just what kind of woman was she, how incomparably beautiful must she be, what kind of magic did she cast? To make him, who never lost his composure even on countless battlefields, so desperately yearning.
Dion mounted his horse, embracing his curiosity that was on the verge of bursting. Whether to stop him or follow him, he had to ride first.
“Please, let’s go together!”
Because his lord, whose eyes had long since rolled back, was already gone.
[This is the timeline separator]The salty sea breeze refreshingly tousled her hair. A few seagull footprints imprinted in the sand were washed away, leaving only white foam.
Helena turned her head. A signboard between the rocks was creaking in the wind. The writing announcing the start of the village was worn and barely visible.
Buuu—
The thick sound of a ship’s horn echoed widely.
Helena asked to accompany a cargo wagon passing by the cemetery that happened to be heading to the nearby port city.
The wagon left to sell harvested crops, and she deliberately chose to sit on a deserted part of the coast.
For several days at the cemetery in Praeterita, Helena shed all her remaining tears. In the face of perfect misfortune, no motivation arose.
During her stay at Basil’s and her mother’s graves, she could only gasp for breath in the chilling solitude.
Living and breathing was so painful. It didn’t seem like stopping breathing would be any worse.
Besides, she was going to die in a few years anyway. They wouldn’t reproach her for joining them now.
‘Mom, Basil. I miss you. I’ll be there soon.’
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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